Huntington Beach to stay out of San Onofre issue

A City Council member's attempt to get local support and call for transparency in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's study of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station fell flat.

Councilwoman Connie Boardman asked the council Monday night to join other Orange County cities, including Laguna Beach, Irvine and San Clemente, in drafting a resolution that would call for the NRC to exercise greater scrutiny and involve the public as it studies potentially relicensing San Onofre in 2022.

Boardman said while the resolution didn't take any stance on whether San Onofre should stay open, it would have meant more information for the public.

“I think of this as pro-information, pro-transparency,” she said. “I don't have some agenda against San Onofre or some agenda against Edison.”

Huntington Beach is about 40 miles from San Onofre, which is in the radius that would be affected should a disaster happen, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan.

“It was really about shining a light,” said Councilman Joe Shaw, who supported Boardman's effort. “We have two failed nuclear reactors within 50 miles of us; if we don't have a stake in that, then who does?”

More than a dozen residents and others from across Orange and San Diego counties called on the council to demand the city get on board with a resolution.

“There is no border, there are no limits to how far radiation might go if there might be tragic release in San Onofre,” said Gary Headrick, who founded San Clemente Green, a grass-roots group calling for the shutdown of the nuclear plant. “We want (there) to be an evidentiary hearing, a court-like proceeding, with outside independent experts that provide us a more complete picture.”

Those against Huntington Beach officially taking a stance on San Onofre said it is an issue that should be left to the NRC.

“I do not believe we should jump on a bandwagon and create any further controversy regarding San Onofre,” said Dianne Thompson, a business owner in Huntington Beach.

Veronica Gutierrez, vice president of Local Public Affairs for Edison, said the NRC is an independent agency that has a primary concern of ensuring safety of the nation's nuclear power plants.

She added there will be public hearings throughout the process and any residents who wish to be involved in the process, can be.

“Changing the process this far along would politicize it in a way that would not be healthy (for the industry),” she said. “The transparency, we believe, is there.”

Although a resolution wasn't approved, the council agreed the issue would be considered at a meeting of the South East Huntington Beach Residents, which would be the area most affected in a nuclear disaster.

State regulators in October started their investigation into SONGS, which has been shut down since January.

One generator, Unit 2, was shut down earlier that month for maintenance and a small leak in Unit 3 prompted the shutdown of that unit, according to an Orange County Register article.

Flaws in the design led to vibrations in the steam generator tubes causing wear that SCE officials said was unexpected.